Author Topic: Japanese style games going extinct?  (Read 15983 times)

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Offline WuTangTurtle

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #25 on: January 20, 2009, 04:59:02 PM »
Well I think it's gonna shrink a bit especially since so many big time FPS flopped.  Free Radical is gone now thanks to Haze, Army of Two didn't sell very well, and Fracture failed to sell well.  I think it's gonna come to a point where only the biggest FPS developers are gonna be making them kind of like how RPG's are now.  You'll have your Call of Duty, Halo, and anything Valve comes up with.  Oh and James Bond games due to the continuing movie releases.

Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #26 on: January 20, 2009, 05:09:25 PM »
Well I think it's gonna shrink a bit especially since so many big time FPS flopped.  Free Radical is gone now thanks to Haze, Army of Two didn't sell very well, and Fracture failed to sell well.  I think it's gonna come to a point where only the biggest FPS developers are gonna be making them kind of like how RPG's are now.  You'll have your Call of Duty, Halo, and anything Valve comes up with.  Oh and James Bond games due to the continuing movie releases.

Well the signs are there. Maybe we'll see a GOOD James Bond FPS?


OK maybe not.
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Offline Flames_of_chaos

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #27 on: January 20, 2009, 05:54:29 PM »
I honestly think it is a cycle. We see it all the time where a genre gets over saturated (I think the FPS genre is getting close to this point) and collapses, but after a few years it can see a resurgence again.

I think FPS games are more than over saturated and in a way RPGs however there are more generic FPS games than generic and dull RPGs.
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #28 on: January 20, 2009, 09:19:45 PM »
Well... many of these so-called "Japanese style games" were heavily dependent on a ravenous and unsustainable hardcore marketplace. When the Japanese market readjusted downwards (a trend which inspired Nintendo to re-invigorate the market with the DS and its unique market strategy), many of these games, I believe, found themselves left high and dry.

Combine that home market deterioration with the rise of Western development prominence and I think that Japanese developers, especially of the genres implied here, are seeing intense competition. I don't think that resorting to the Wii will completely solve their problems either: I think they're going to have to be more flexible and innovative in their development, something which I'd argue that Nintendo is also hoping Japanese developers rediscover in themselves (see: the story behind WiiWare, Nintendo's 8-bit-like bit Generations titles).
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #29 on: January 20, 2009, 09:23:47 PM »
I think one problem with the JRPG is that they are still using elements in the game design that were originally implemented because of hardware bottlenecks (like random battles). It seems to be a genre that is caught in the past.
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Offline Bill Aurion

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #30 on: January 20, 2009, 09:33:51 PM »
I think one problem with the JRPG is that they are still using elements in the game design that were originally implemented because of hardware bottlenecks (like random battles). It seems to be a genre that is caught in the past.

I remember getting into a big hoopla with Pale over this, don't start it up again! ='D
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Offline NinGurl69 *huggles

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #31 on: January 20, 2009, 09:54:11 PM »
Bring it back, I think I missed the hoopla.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #32 on: January 20, 2009, 09:54:42 PM »
I think one problem with the JRPG is that they are still using elements in the game design that were originally implemented because of hardware bottlenecks (like random battles). It seems to be a genre that is caught in the past.

I remember getting into a big hoopla with Pale over this, don't start it up again! ='D

And I missed it?!?! :(
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Offline Morari

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #33 on: January 20, 2009, 10:14:56 PM »
Because some idiots derailed and killed the FF13 thread while I was typing this up I'll post this in a separate thread.

It seems to me that the japanese style of game design is dying out on the HD consoles. Even the games that do get made on them seem to be designed to look like western games. Where previously Square-Enix and co dominated the RPG scene now they've yielded to the likes of Bioware and Bethesda. The only genre that still seems to live is the Dynasty Warriors clone. The games that do come out fail critically and in the market. Of course anything that comes out is a retread of an idea from the previous gen but that's hardly a surprise. The gaming landscape on these platforms is becoming as brown and dull as the next-gen graphics themselves.

This is probably a misperception by me but when I look at store shelves for these systems everything is dull and uninteresting. Seems the only place where anything is still happening is on WiiWare.

Good. JRPGs tend to be rather boring, giving you little control over characters and ultimately presenting themselves as little more than glorified movies. When it comes down to Square, BioWare, Bethesda and other RPG-centric companies, it's no wonder that the freedom, decisions, and open-ended gameplay of Western RPGs  is finally beginning to dominate the landscape. It's only too bad the market as a whole didn't take notice sooner, maybe we'd still have Troika around if so. That's what happens when everyone pigeonholes themselves into consoles and relegates PC gaming. Fools.
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #34 on: January 20, 2009, 10:24:45 PM »
I think one problem with the JRPG is that they are still using elements in the game design that were originally implemented because of hardware bottlenecks (like random battles). It seems to be a genre that is caught in the past.

I think this is also a part of it...sadly.
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Offline Adrock

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #35 on: January 20, 2009, 10:35:25 PM »
I think pap is pretty dead on about the genre being oversaturated.  They are a lot of RPGs and a lot of them are very similar.  I've gotten rather bored of them because the stories and settings are so damn similar.
Pap is dead on? I just said that right before he did. *grumble grumble* :)

They'll go away when consumers stop supporting these games. It's clearly starting. Infinite Undiscovery is about as by-the-numbers as JRPGs come and people responded by not giving a sh*t. Square Enix is probably glad Microsoft owns rights to it.

Offline Dirk Temporo

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #36 on: January 20, 2009, 10:36:37 PM »
Japanese style games going extinct?

I could never be that lucky, so I doubt it.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #37 on: January 20, 2009, 10:37:53 PM »
I think one problem with the JRPG is that they are still using elements in the game design that were originally implemented because of hardware bottlenecks (like random battles). It seems to be a genre that is caught in the past.

I think this is also a part of it...sadly.

I really hate the West vs Japan in RPGs. If only the they could blend the good ideas from both, we could get some really innovative games!
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Offline Urkel

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #38 on: January 20, 2009, 10:43:04 PM »
I think one problem with the JRPG is that they are still using elements in the game design that were originally implemented because of hardware bottlenecks (like random battles). It seems to be a genre that is caught in the past.

I think this is also a part of it...sadly.

I really hate the West vs Japan in RPGs. If only the they could blend the good ideas from both, we could get some really innovative games!

Exactly. Somebody needs to make an RPG with the freedom of Western RPGs with the awesome battle system of a Tales-like game.
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Offline NinGurl69 *huggles

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #39 on: January 20, 2009, 10:44:27 PM »
They don't have to blend crap.

They just have to do what they do, BETTER, without doing what they usually do.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #40 on: January 20, 2009, 10:56:11 PM »
They don't have to blend crap.

They just have to do what they do, BETTER, without doing what they usually do.

LOL.

Does anyone know which was the first JRPG to actually show the enemy locations on screen?
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Offline NWR_Lindy

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #41 on: January 20, 2009, 11:15:11 PM »
I agree with GP, it's cyclical.  The industry always chases hot genres, and ever since Halo blew up FPSes have been all the rage.  And there have been some good ones, but beyond the biggest of the biggest titles most people could care less.  It's the same with JRPGs.  There's just so much noise right now...all of these games look the same unless you're a genre afficionado who can tell them apart.  That's why you see RPGs like Fallout 3 getting a lot of attention, because they're taking a familiar genre but doing something a little different with it.  At least, different from most JRPGs that people see sitting on the shelves.

When's the last time you saw something super unique from Japan?  Outside of Nintendo, you got nothing.  That's why Nintendo sells so much; say what you will, but their games are truly unique.  For example, Soul Calibur IV, Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Tekken 6, and Street Fighter IV are all going to be amazing fighters, but who's going to buy all of them aside from genre geeks?  Also, what are they going to offer that will bring in new fans?  Probably not a lot.  That's Japan in a nutshell for me, giving the same game to the same fans.  That's cool, but it'll only take you so far when things gets stale after a few years.  Why did it take Nintendo to make a game like Super Smash Bros. Brawl?  Couldn't Namco have, theoretically, done a better job with that kind of brawler since fighting games are their forte?  I'm not saying replace Tekken 6 with Brawl, but why not release them alongside each other?  It's this thinking outside the box that Japan isn't doing right now.
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Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #42 on: January 20, 2009, 11:18:14 PM »
OMG. Did I just see a post by Lindy I agree 100% with? ::faints::
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #43 on: January 20, 2009, 11:25:35 PM »
They don't have to blend crap.

They just have to do what they do, BETTER, without doing what they usually do.

I see what you did there.
Carmine Red, Associate Editor

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.

Offline NinGurl69 *huggles

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #44 on: January 20, 2009, 11:54:45 PM »
Unintentional play on the words.
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Offline Adrock

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #45 on: January 20, 2009, 11:57:09 PM »
When's the last time you saw something super unique from Japan?
No More Heroes. Madworld.

Offline GoldenPhoenix

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #46 on: January 21, 2009, 03:36:04 AM »
When's the last time you saw something super unique from Japan?
No More Heroes. Madworld.

I haven't played Persona 3 yet but it sounds pretty unique as well (70hrs or so of gameplay is intimidating!).

There are definately a few out there, but the bigger publishers like Square and Capcom have been playing things EXTREMELY safe for years now.
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Offline Bill Aurion

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #47 on: January 21, 2009, 04:40:05 AM »
When's the last time you saw something super unique from the West?

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Offline KDR_11k

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #48 on: January 21, 2009, 04:58:21 AM »
It's not the JRPGs I'm really missing, it seems like all kinds of genres the PS2 had are not present on the current gen. Though maybe they're still there, just with more brown and grimdark. Considering the examples for unique recent games from Japan were two ultra-violent games maybe that's what's happening.

Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Japanese style games going extinct?
« Reply #49 on: January 21, 2009, 12:54:01 PM »
Quote
Well... many of these so-called "Japanese style games" were heavily dependent on a ravenous and unsustainable hardcore marketplace.

To be fair these types of games were popular for about 20 years.  It isn't like some fad bubble that was going to pop any day now.

I wonder if the increase in popularity of strategy RPGs is because that's a method of turn based battling that has more logic to it.  It plays more like a board game like Chess.  It's a little more than just a grindfest.  Is it a sub-genre or is it really just where the genre naturally is headed.  Was Super Mario Bros. of a different sub-genre than Donkey Kong or was that just the natural evolution of platformers?

But isn't Japan just very conformist?  So once videogames as they were ceased to be popular no one liked them anymore?  It's very different than what we're used to here.  It's like everyone likes something or no one does.  No niches or demographics.  I'm just going by bits and pieces I've heard here and there though so I might completely out-to-lunch on that.